HARTFORD, Conn. — In 2025, a new Hartford-area Center for Racial Justice and Gender Equity is set to open and those that have been within the program could not be happier.
Anarelis Cruz followed her dream of studying organizational leadership through the YWCA Hartford Region’s career program. Cruz completed her studies at Manchester Community College while raising three kids.
“Paving the way for other women like me who are Latina, who lives in Hartford, who strive to actually be part of something greater,” Cruz said Thursday inside the YWCA on Broad Street where officials celebrated the announcement.
Cruz is one of 1,700 women and girls served by the Hartford-area nonprofit.
But in two years that number will nearly double to 3,000 thanks to $4.2 million in state funding awarded to the YWCA through a recently established Community Investment Fund or CIF, which was established in the wake of 2020 uprisings to support merit projects.
Gov. Ned Lamont said House State Rep. Matt Ritter, D, Hartford, was instrumental in creating the fund.
“Rather through merit and through a true application process where it is weighed, evaluated," Ritter said.
“It is really community lead and the number of grants that we’re able to do that are just informed by folks like you make a difference,” Lamont added.
The new center will offer a variety of youth development programs and services that prepare women for in-demand careers in fields like tech.
“Is exactly the type of work that needs to be done to help break cycles of poverty,” Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said.
“When we have strong women, we have strong families, when we have strong families, we have strong neighborhoods," State Sen. Douglas McCrory, D, Hartford said.
Samaia Hernandez is a reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at shernandez@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X, and Instagram.
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